Albanian
throng in Djakovica attacks German KFOR vehicles with
Serbian Orthodox monks and German TV crew

The gathered Albanians made a lot of noise and began to
verbally attack the monks and German soldiers with the most vulgar
expressions. They then began to pound on the chassis and windows of the
vehicle using their feet and hands, and to throw balls of frozen snow. The
German soldiers noticed that during the furious attack one of the bumpers
of the minibus was almost broken off, which was later repaired. In the
meanwhile, the horrified ARD German state television crew, which had been
filming the nearby ruins of the Serbian Orthodox church blown up by the
Albanians in the summer of 1999, frightened out of its wits, jumped into
one of the vehicles and the entire column raced at breakneck speed as far
as the Italian military base a few hundred meters away. Several civilian
passenger vehicles of angry Albanians immediately set out after the KFOR
vehicles and stopped only when the two minibuses and the German
transporter literally crashed through the ramp of the Italian KFOR
military base, stated Brother Bojan Dejanovic of Holy Archangels
Monastery, an eyewitness of the incident.

ERP KIM Info
ServiceJanuary 21, 2004, Gracanica (21:15)

(Photo by ERP KIM: Two German soldiers
adjust broken off bumper on one of minibuses at Italian base after
incident. Monk Prohor is sitting in back seat. Larger photo: http://www.kosovo.com/ard_djv.jpg )

Brother Bojan Dejanovic of the
Monastery of Holy Archangels near Prizren confirmed for the ERP KIM today
that two minibuses with KFOR military markings and one German military
transporter (APC) were attacked by a group of some 30 young Kosovo
Albanians throwing snowballs and iceballs while a television crew from ARD
German state television was filming the ruins of the Serbian Orthodox
Church of the Holy Trinity in the center of Djakovica.

According to Dejanovic , who
was in one of the military minibuses with monk Prochorus, the vehicle was
first approached by an Albanian woman who began to scream and curse. Since
it was about 15,10, when there are still plenty of people in the street, a
group of some 30 younger Kosovo Albanians soon gathered who made a lot of
noise and began to verbally attack the monks and German soldiers with the
most vulgar expressions. They then began to pound on the chassis and
windows of the vehicle using their feet and hands, and to throw balls of
frozen snow. The German soldiers noticed that during the furious attack
one of the bumpers of the minibus was almost broken off (see photo left),
which was later repaired.

In the meanwhile, the
horrified ARD German state television crew, which had been filming the
nearby ruins of the Serbian Orthodox church blown up by the Albanians in
the summer of 1999, frightened out of its wits, jumped into one of the
vehicles and the entire column raced at breakneck speed as far as the
Italian military base a few hundred meters away. Several civilian
passenger vehicles of angry Albanians immediately set out after the KFOR
vehicles and stopped only when the two minibuses and the German
transporter literally crashed through the ramp of the Italian KFOR
military base, stated Brother Bojan Dejanovic of Holy Archangels
Monastery, an eyewitness of the incident.

The ARD German state
television crew has been visiting Kosovo and Metohija for the past several
days and planned, among other things, to visit several Serb enclaves and
monasteries. After staying at the Holy Archangels Monastery, the crew
visited Visoki Decani Monastery in the morning in two military minibuses
and one armored transporter. Upon returning to Prizren the TV crew planned
to film the ruins of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Djakovica, as well
as to visit five Serb old ladies living in complete isolation and with
daily Albanian terror for five years under the constant protection of
Italian soldiers. However, as a result of the incident which almost ended
in a public lynching and in keeping with KFOR's security rules, the ARD
crew, the monks and the German soldiers immediately set out for Prizren.
The monks from Holy Archangels were transferred to German KFOR combat
transporter for greater security (see photo below).

The entire incident was
recorded by ARD cameras and the ERP KIM Info Services hopes that these
clips of savage and uncivilized behavior by the Albanians, who as we can
see will not spare even those who express only an interest in the
persecution of the Serbs, will be shown to the German and global
public.

This incident in Djakovica occurred only two weeks after
the stoning of an UNMIK bus with Russian humanitarians in Decani in which
the windows on one of the buses was broken, which was recorded by Russian
state television cameras and shown to the Russian public together with a
larger stone that remained in the bus.

Since all similar incidents
to date in which KFOR soldiers have been targeted in Albanian attacks have
been regularly covered up or minimized, the ERP KIM Info Service sincerely
hopes that the German KFOR spokesperson who was personally present during
this incident will confirm what Dejanovic said, as well as that the police
will conduct an investigation of this incident. After numerous attempts to
establish telephone contact with the press officer of German
KFOR, lieutenant colonel Klaus Ehlers, the ERP KIM Info Service team
could not get anyone to answer the phone at the telephone number printed
on that officer's business card which worked normally until
today.

(The program on Kosovo and
Metohija being filmed by ARD TV is scheduled to be broadcast in its
entirety on April 18.)

For direct telephone contact with eyewitnesses, please note
the following numbers: